Isekai: The Eight Soul Fragments

"So this man has been the one that helped you?" "Yes, I will introduce you to him, his name his Reito Hoshino, he is... A bounty hunter!" "Bounty hunter? Ah, is he perhaps [Stardust King]?" Reito spoke up, answering the man's question. "Indeed I am... Pleased to meet you knight commander." Reito offered a handshake to the person he called as the Knight Commander, which he accepted easily.

The Knight Commander shook his hand with a slightly stronger grip. Reito did not notice anything due to his power and strength, and simply allowed the introductions to continue.

"Commander, we should introduce him to the rest of the knight order. I'm sure those who know him as [Stardust King] are excited about it." Amelia continued her desire to place Reito on the spotlight, as she was trying to show everyone that her mentor isn't someone to be underestimated with. "Alright then, let us go to the special force, surely everyone there would want to welcome him." The special force of the knight order were Amelia's current closest friends. They brought him to their group as the commander led the way. Amelia walked beside Reito as she was excited to tell him about everyone.

Neither of them could notice the expression the commander had as his back was facing them.

When they arrived to the barracks, Amelia was greeted by her friends she quickly introduced Reito to her friends as their commander left to handle on some things such as reporting to the current king.

"So you're the [Mentor] that miss Amelia always talks about! You're actually a handsome guy, no wonder miss Amelia likes you so much!" Amelia blushed with their impressions for Reito, while he remained almost unaffected. He has yet to understand any romantic feelings in his end, so he wanted to at the very least ask what they meant. "Umm, what do you exactly mean by that?" "Oh? Is he also innocent, for a bounty hunter to be something like that is quite a big surprise. Well if Amelia has landed on a hunk like you are, then we can rest easy~!" Reito never really understood them, but he tried to communicate the best he could.

He stayed for a few days on the barracks, as he was not called for a bounty for those days, he made the decision to train the knights that are around as Amelia's mentor. Every knight had faced him so far, with the sole exception of the commander who has yet to speak to him for a long time.

"Hmm, the commander is being a little grumpy again today huh?" One of the female knights, which is Amelia's closest friend was staring at the knight commander, who was sparring with Amelia. He was much more strict than he usually acts when training other knights. This made the female knight suspicious of his behavior. It didn't help either that after sparring with the knight commander, Amelia rushed towards Reito. "Hey Reito, how did I do today~?!" According to the female knight, Amelia started acting more cheerfully with Reito's presence. At the same time, the knight commander started acting more rigid. Reito, who has yet to understand certain emotions didn't pay it no mind.

After the training, Amelia and Reito left the castle to hunt, it became somewhat of a routine as the two of them we're able to give productive results during their hunts.

However in the meantime, the female knight called for the commander on a bridge.

"So, what was I being summoned for?" The knight commander demanded to know the reason for being called to a remote location in the castle. "What's up with you recently commander. You've suddenly changed from being fair to be stricter. Ever since Amelia brought Reito, you've been acting different-" before she could continue, the commander unsheathed his sword and swung straight for the female knight's neck. She barely unsheathed her sword and blocked that attack in time. "What is the meaning of this?! Commander!" "You have no right to say anything here. If you are to summon me based on your trivial judgement of my behavior then you may be doubting the will of our emperor." "What do you mean by that? There's nothing that connects between the will of the emperor and my curiosity. As long as the citizens are safe and smiling under our protection, that's what matters the most right?!" The strength of the knight commander was on a whole different level. The female knight was forcefully knelt down as she kept trying to hold her sword up to prevent the knight commander to slice off her neck.

"If you don't understand then that's alright. As long as this country lives in smiles, there is no need for people who doubt the smiles of others to exist in this country." "W-Wha...?" "Besides, aren't you all supposed to be under me? All of you should be obeying to my orders at all times. I never asked any of you to doubt my judgement even once." The female knight now fully understood. The knight commander disliked that somebody was being taken away from him. Specially that it was Amelia that was being taken away.

Back in time, the knight commander once took notice of Amelia, who was a female knight who was being discriminated against. He was the vice-commander back then, and simply ignored what the girl had been through.

But with her sudden rise of power and will, and challenging the impossible task that had been given to her. He had become fond of her existence. With his backing, he personally trained her, which showed how much talent she actually had.

However, the knight commander at that time was someone who bullied her at the start, and slowly become fond of her after completing his impossible request. Wanting to take her for himself, the man wished for a chance to eliminate the threat in front of him. The knight commander in that time as he was about to take something away from his fondness.

It was then he met someone.

"You look like you have a potential to be one of our apostles. The lingering hatred you hold towards anyone who tries to take your possessions, I could see the potential in you." The man was confused, as someone appeared behind him as he wished into a small pool of water in a mystical forest.

"W-Who are you?!" The man who appeared behind him laughed. Behind the man, a giant clock was manifested. "Ahaha~! You truly are good enough, we've been finding many others like us. Let's see, you can join us, but I want to see how you do things first. Our target will appear in a few years. So let's use your knight commander as target practice." "Target practice?" The man handed a dirk and a zweihander to him. "Use these weapons, learn what kind of power they can hold, and kill your knight commander with it."

"K-Kill him...? B-But that's murder!" "If you don't, he will take away your little Amelia you know? Say, he could even be potentially inviting her to his private quarters right know. Who knows what he may have done in that time." "Ghh!" The man grit his teeth, imagining what the man who handed him the weapons had said.

Fueled with more anger, he tried swinging the sword towards the man, but it was easily dodged. "Whoa there, I admit, I was going a little too far there. Swinging at me in anger is not your fault. But you know what you have to do now right?" The man now understood the assignment, he left after taking the two weapons and headed back to the castle, only hearing how they could meet at the small pool of water in the mystical forest at any time.

After a few years, he had learned the functions of the two weapons overtime, and eventually learned many terrifying ways to eliminate the past knight commander.

It was during a monster hunt mission after it had invaded a village, the vice-commander was making sure that his sword become as bloody as possible. Then after killing the monster as a collective group, he stopped time and stabbed the knight commander, and inserted a mandible from the monster's corpse through that pierce to make it seem like he was murdered by the monster at its last breath. He returned to his position before time resumed. They were shocked, and grieving as they had lost their commander.

There was no grieving done at the castle however as they all celebrated hos valiance and burial as a great knight. With nobody in that position, he rose up as the now knight commander, appointing Amelia as the vice-commander.

But just after a few months, present time, Reito appeared, who acted as Amelia's mentor. And is now the person who is always taking Amelia's attention.

He needed to do something. He wanted to kill him. He wanted to erase his existence away from Amelia.

However, the day after he first appeared, he was decidingly defeated in a duel, against Amelia's mentor, Reito Hoshino.

In present time, the female knight had finally understood that the knight commander that she knew never had any compassion for them. But was instead showing an obsession to be someone that they can only rely and trust regardless of his darkness. She tried to fight back, but was eventually rendered a failure as she was slain on the spot. The knight commander left and washed himself, before returning to the area and planting items for evidence of an assassination, making it seem like he hadn't done the crime.

After the body was found, many grieved at the start. It continued until the day of the burial, where her apparent valiance against an assassin who plotted murder and was stopped by stalling with her life until the knight commander arrived to intervene, which the assassin escaped.

Amelia was greatly hurt during the incident, and asked to take a momentary leave from the order. It was unanimously accepted, to the knight commander's dismay, as she stayed with Reito.

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After a few years had passed, the knight commander finally returned to that puddle of water, where he met the man who gave him the weapons.

He was filled with negativity, begging to ask for a way to eliminate such an opponent who is much stronger than him, even with the time-breaking weapons given to him.

The man simply smiled, as if the moment he was waiting for had finally arrived. An opportunity to finally make his move after a long time of patience. "The time has come for us to turn you into one of us Apostles of Dominion." The knight commander was confused, but he was instructed by him to follow a certain set of instructions.

During the few years, Amelia had managed to stay with Reito for most of the time. The two eventually started to understand what it meant to love and be loved. They soon got married, and even had a child during that period.

Amelia returned to the knight order from time to time during Reito's bounty hunting missions. The knights were happy for her, and her child. They were able to return to training during those times where Reito was absent. The child was named after Amelia's best friend, the female knight. The lives of Reito and Amelia continued for a period of time.

Until, calamity struck.

The knight commander had given Reito a long mission, with the bounty being the supposed assassin that murdered the female knight, Amelia's best friend.

During that time, the knight commander had caused a crazed chaos in the castle, murdering every other knight aside from the special force, where they are held captive.

Amelia tried to rescue them after hiding her child within the castle, but with his new profound power as an apostle he swiftly dealt with her and threatened her to perform unspeakable things if she wanted the survival of the special force and her child, who was captive by the man with a large clock manifesting behind him.

Before he could have gotten a taste of her however, Reito returned, with what seemed to be a terrifying glare that he had never shown. It was an emotion he had yet to conceive. The feeling of wrath and wanting someone dead.

Resentment of a Destroyer.

He tried to rush over to murder the man. It was at that point where the beings of that world had seen a Destroyer's true power.

A destructive aura that causes everything to detonate into a massive explosion. A manifestation of a nova, an endless combustion of heat with the many gases of the universe.

"[Supernova]."

In that mere moment, the entire castle was erased into the ground with nothing that could even resemble it.

Everything was reduced to a simple crater, with only a few protected survivors had survived.

"W-What just happened..." The knights were confused, as the only thing that they could see was nothing but flatland. No trace of a castle, or even lifeform... Not even traces of plants remained.

The knight commander was similarly erased, reduced to nothing but atoms.

However, the man who had a clock manifestation behind him was still alive. "Truly awe-inspiring! Truly extravagant Destroyer! However, it is unfortunate that I will have to take your soul now."

The man tried to pierce his hand through Reito's chest, but it was instantly erased as though an explosion happened. Just as Reito tried to eliminate him, he saw the heads of Amelia, and their child fly out of their necks.

Reito widened his eyes, wondering when did he do that, but he had lost his only chances for his possible life that he wished for.

Without a word, his heart was breaking, and if he had nothing else to live for, he can just destroy everything.

"[Supernova]!!!"

He destroyed everything once more, the whole world, gone. Neighboring worlds? Gone. Even stars nearby disappeared.

And lastly, his body, disappeared. Only his soul remained along with as the man who had a clock manifestation behind him survived with major injuries.